Video/Recipe: Coconut Water Kefir

History and folklore credit coconut water with remarkable healing powers. Coconut water is harvested from young green coconuts (different than the liquid in mature brown coconuts). This fluid is a powerhouse of nutrition.

Young Green Coconut Water is a Superfood

Young green coconut water contains a complex blend of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, carbohydrates, antioxidants, enzymes, and other phytonutrients. The electrolyte content and pH is so similar to human plasma (and it is sterile) it is compatible with the human body, so much so, doctors have used coconut water successfully as an intravenous fluid in times of emergency (WWII).

Incredible as that sounds, I would much rather culture it for its powerful gut healing properties as a non-dairy kefir beverage.

Donna Gates may be credited for originating the idea of fermenting the young green coconut water into kefir. If you would like to use the actual young green coconuts and retrieve the water from them, her website has instructions on how to do that.

I found it way to labor intensive too locate the young green coconuts, open them with a cleaver and remove the water. It was frustrating to find several of the coconuts in each case were rotten. Additionally, in order to import them, a lot of fungicides are used.

Coconut Water in Tetrapaks

Instead, I turned to prepackaged young green coconut water that comes in a tetrapak that is packaged in the Phillipines so that the fungicides are not needed. The plain coconut water that is unflavored works really well.

The water is full of potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and sodium and other trace minerals and is very popular as a sports drink. It certainly beats drinking Gatorade or the other commercial sports drinks with all their flavorings and additives.

When kefired, the water has the added value of probiotics and enzymes. When taken with a meal, it aids in the digestion of the food. Taken in between meals, it adds probiotics to the gut.

In traditional cultures, the plain water was used for digestive upset. Clearly, as a kefir, it becomes an even greater healing food for the intestines.

Ingredients

Instructions

With a plastic spoon drop one heaping tablespoon of the water grains into the water

Seal with a lid or cover with a cloth rubberbanded around the lip of the jar

Keep at room temperature for 36 – 48 hours or longer until it no longer tastes sweet

Refrigerate when ready

Tips

As with all probiotic foods and drinks, start to consume slowly and in small amounts so that your body gets used to this powerful culture

Taste the water before you kefir it so you know how sweet it tastes

Taste the water each day so you get to know how it is fermenting and when you like the taste

You can also kefir coconut water with milk kefir grains that have been rinsed thoroughly

If you use milk grains, be sure to put the grains back into milk after use in the water

When using water kefir grains, put them back into sugar water in order to recharge them in between each new kefir

Heal the Gut

Microbiome barriers protect us from misfiring of the immune system. When there is barrier dysbiosis – leaky gut, leaky brain and leaky skin can develop. There are also microbial barriers in the lungs. The health of all these microbial barriers must be taken into consideration.

Treg cells dampen the hyper-immune response and are critical cells that help balance the immune response. The immune system can be healed back into balance.

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